required MX for airliners

[cforst513]

just curious what the regular scheduled maintenance on airliners is. at our school, we do 50 hr and 100 hr inspections, but what do the bigger planes (part 121 and 135, i guess) have to go through? i imagine its different for turbines vs pistons

 

[gkrangers]

Depends on the airlnie.

 

[Rick1128]

Not only depends on the aircraft but also the operator. Piston aircraft can do programed maintenance. But unless you fly extreme amounts of hours with tight schedules, it is usually not worth it. Turbine aircraft use maintenance programs. Aircraft that are larger than 9 passenger seats are required to have an approved mainenance program. Most operators, especially the smaller ones will use a version of the manufacturer's recommended program. The hourly tme spread is usually greater on a turbine. On the Lear there is a 150 hour engine inspection. Then a 300 hour/6 month airframe then a 600 hour/12 month inspection.

Hope that helps you.

 

[enigma]

Airworthiness of the old Maddogs that I fly is comfirmed with: a "daily" inspection that is good for around three days, a "phased A" check accomplished every 250 or so hours, a "phased C" check done every 18 months, and time cycle inspections due whenever the components time/cycle limit is reached.

Inspection intervals are airline/airframe specific and are detailed in the airlines
General Maintenance Manual.

Sorry to be vague, but this is a very complicated issue, to the point that no two C checks are the same. There are just too many variables.

enigma

 

[pilotmiketx]

It'll be any progressive maint. plan that the FAA has approved the certificate holder to perform. Sounds like an FAA test question, but basically it's a series of periodic inspections that the carrier has developed (usually following the manufacturers guidelines, but with some room for customization) and the Feds have given the OK.

They don't do 50/100/annual inspections like light planes, which I think is what you were asking.

 

[BoilerUP]

I've heard of Citations need Stage I-VII checks, how does that differ from your standard A-D Check?

 

[check6]

I think our 135 operation with Cheyennes requires 100 hour inspections, but then they also do hot sections on each engine at "half" the engine life. Other than those inspections, I'm clueless. . . .

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

I've heard of Citations need Stage I-VII checks, how does that differ from your standard A-D Check?

Citations actually have Phase 1 thru about 200 checks.

They range from minor stuff like battery inspections to major airframe inspections. Ranging from monthly to yearly to three and five years all the way to 10 or 15 year checks.

Some are time based, some are calender based.

 

[DaveJ]

I worked at Delta for a few years as a contractor in their IT department. They had a daily Aircraft Control Time Log or ACTL they would print every day that listed all the maintenace coming due on all their aircraft by days, cycles (t/o & landings), or hours. The light maintenance were called Services Checks and were designated by numbers while the heavy maintenace visits were called Letter Checks and designed by A, B, C, etc.

I worked on a program that would figure out how to get the a/c to a maintenance station that could perform the required maintenance as close to the limit as possible without exceeding the days, hours, or cycles left.

 

[BoilerUP]

Ah it is Phase, not Stage...

I remember a friend telling me about his 550 up in TOL getting a check done when he was at FSI doing recurrent and it sounded completely different than the A-D system I knew.